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Archive for the 'Student Experience' Category

We need your help! Library Induction January 2024

By Angela Young, on 11 December 2023

Around 1000 new students join UCL in January 2024. These are a mixture of undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research students. Many of them are affiliate students (on degree programmes at other universities with some time spent at UCL) and / or international students.
The Library Services Induction Working Group invites all LCCOS staff to contribute to library induction events on Friday 5 January and Monday 8 January as part of our Library Induction Taskforce.
  • Support Services Fair: Help staff a stand, promote our services and answer questions. We need two people on each 1 hour shift on Friday 5th and Monday 8th January, 12.00-15.00, South Cloisters.
  • International student library seminar – 45 minute presentations with Q&A for international students so they know what to expect from our libraries. We need one presenter and one support person to usher attendees and help facilitate Q&A on Friday 5 January 12.15-13.00 and Monday 8 January 13.15-14.00.

To get involved, with consent from your line manager, please indicate the activities you would like to support on this form and we’ll come back to you to finalise your contribution.

Many thanks.

Angela Young (on behalf of the Library Induction Working Group)

Facilities & Projects Team Blog – Student Centre Closed for Lift Repairs  

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 8 September 2023

Student Centre Closed for Lift Repairs

On Saturday 9th September 2023, the Student Centre will be Closed from 7.00am and reopening on Sunday 10th September 2023 at 7.00am, please be aware of this if you are directing colleagues and students to this space, and if you are within the building.

This closure is to enable noisy works to be carried out  and also allow the flood repairs to Lift 3 and the track guide repairs to be completed at the same time, finally reinstating lift 3 back into service.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by these works and we appreciate your continued support and patience.

If you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact the LCCOS Facilities & Projects Team. Our team information can be found at the following link Facilities & Project Team

Induction insights 2023 – what’s happening and get involved

By Angela Young, on 5 September 2023

With only a few weeks to go before new students start arriving on campus, there is still time to get involved in the exciting activities we have planned to welcome students to our libraries. Thank you to everyone who has signed up for the Induction Taskforce so far. There are lots of activities to get involved in, and you can contribute as much time as you like:

  • Support Services Fair: welcome students at the library stand in the cloisters (hour-long shifts), every day Monday 25 – Wed 27 Sep, 10.30-15.00.
  • Introduction to Explore: get involved in leading or supporting these short demonstration sessions on how to use Explore. A great opportunity to get involved in library skills teaching. Every day Monday 25 – Friday 29 Sep, 12.00 and 12.30.
  • International Student Library Seminars: help present or facilitate questions in these sessions to help international students navigate our libraries and resources. Every day Wed 20 – Fri 22 Sep, 12.15-12.45.
  • Getting Started spaces: meet and greet students in the Main or Science libraries, (hour-long shifts) throughout the induction period, 10.00 – 16.00

You can now claim your slot(s) for any of these activities:

If you haven’t yet signed up, but would like to help, with consent from your line manager and prioritising support for induction activities at your own library site as required, please:

Please share induction activities you are doing locally at your library site, or in support of particular academic departments, and any induction materials you have put together for particular cohorts, to help colleagues with inspiration, ensuring best practice and saving duplication of effort. See the ‘Induction sharing’ tab in the Library Skills Team site.

Key dates for UCL student induction:

Wednesday 30 August: First day of term for Initial Teacher Education Programme (IOE)

Monday 18 – Friday 22 September: International students welcome week

Monday 25 – Friday 29 September: Induction week

Facilities & Projects Team Blog – Cruciform Building Electrical System Testing

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 29 August 2023

Cruciform Building Electrical System Testing

Some of you may already be aware, as this has taken place on some of our LCCOS sites already, we are currently working with Estates colleagues to carry out essential electrical testing across the UCL community. These tests are to ensure that all distribution boards, data facilities, electric circuits, power, and lighting are working correctly and meet legal requirements.

There are plans to carry out essential works on the Cruciform Buildings electrical systems on Saturday 2nd September 2023. This is to allow us to undertake these works, the building will be closed to isolate power to areas of the Cruciform.

 Please be aware that the Cruciform Building will be closed for the duration of the full building shut down on Saturday 2nd September 2023, and reopening, as usual, on Sunday 3rd September 2023.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by these works and we appreciate your continued support and patience. If you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact the Library Facilities & Projects Team.

Induction insights 2023 – we need you!

By Angela Young, on 26 July 2023

In this edition of Induction insights 2023:

  • Sign up to be part of the Library Induction Taskforce.
  • Helping students understand what to expect from their library when they start university.
  • Sharing induction materials.

1. Sign up to be part of the Library Induction Taskforce

The Library Induction Working Group invite all library staff to get involved with meeting, greeting and supporting our new students by contributing to our face to face, central library induction activities as part of the Library Induction Taskforce. This is an opportunity to meet and work with other colleagues from across Library Services, to broaden your experience of providing support to students and develop or enhance your professional skills. Contribute as much or as little as you are able over the induction period, mainly in the week commencing 25th September 2023.

Activities include staffing a stand at the Support Services Fair or a ‘Getting Started’ space in Main and Science libraries or contributing to demonstrations of Explore or welcome talks to international students.

If you would like to get involved, with consent from your line manager and prioritising support for induction activities at your own library site as required, please sign up.

If you routinely contribute to central induction activities every year, please ensure you still complete the form so we have a complete record of everyone who will be involved to help facilitate communications.

2. Helping students understand what to expect from their library when they start university.

For students starting at university for the first time, getting to grips with navigating UCL’s many libraries, collections and extensive online library resources can be overwhelming and daunting. We have produced a short guide with tips to help smooth this transition. Initially presented as a Sway, we plan ultimately to turn this into a video, and have deliberately framed it so it is relevant to anyone about to start at university, not only at UCL, so it can be useful to people before they have a confirmed university place. It is available on the Pre-arrival page of the Library Skills pages. Please share in any communications where it might be relevant.

3. Sharing induction materials

At the recent Induction Exchange (part of the LCCOS Staff Summer School (Get an enrolment key for the Moodle course)) we discussed the benefits of sharing induction materials put together for academic programmes or library sites. These might include videos, Sway presentations, quizzes, etc. Sharing can inspire, ensure best practice and save duplication of effort. Please share your local induction materials in the new ‘Induction sharing’ tab in the Library Skills Team site. Materials shared by colleagues at the ‘Induction exchange’ and previous staff training events are already listed.

Facilities & Project Blog – School of Pharmacy Fixed Wire Testing

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 14 June 2023

Some of you may already be aware, as this has taken place on many of our LCCOS sites already, we are currently working with Estates colleagues to carry out essential fixed wire testing across the UCL community. These tests are to ensure that all distribution boards, data facilities, electrical circuits, power, and lighting are working correctly and meet legal requirements.

The School of Pharmacy Building will experience a full building shut down, on each riser, on the following times and dates:

  • Riser A, Friday 16th June 2023, between 09.00-12.00
  • Riser D, Wednesday 21st June 2023, between 09.00-12.00
  • Riser C, Friday 23rd June 2023, between 09.00-12.00

The library will be closed for this testing to take place, and only essential staff will be permitted on site, resulting in the library space being closed for the duration of the above times and dates.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by these works and we appreciate your continued support and patience.

If you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact the Library Facilities & Projects Team.

Induction Insights 2023 – starting the countdown

By Angela Young, on 8 June 2023

The library Induction Working Group is excited to be planning welcome for new students to our libraries for the 2023-24 academic session, and in this series of ‘Induction insights 2023’ blogposts, we’ll be keeping you posted on what will be happening, how we can support you locally and how you can get involved in activities.

What will be happening?

  • Library induction stand at the Support Services Fair in the cloisters during induction week, Monday 25 – Thursday 28 September, and at the new Marshgate site at UCL East on Friday 29 September.
  • Face to face drop-in sessions for people to learn about Explore and accessing library resources throughout induction week.
  • Face to face activities during the week commencing 18 September to welcome international students to our libraries.
  • Online support materials, including our online library induction and self-guided library tours.

How we can support you locally?

Local, tailored inductions for students in individual faculties, departments or academic programmes, or at individual library sites, are vital to complement centralised activities and instil a sense of belonging. We have compiled recommendations on how you might deliver local inductions and what content to include, but you also might want to consider:

  • Joining the ‘Induction exchange’, an online event for LCCOS colleagues to share ideas and best practice around induction activities being delivered as part of the LCCOS Staff Summer School on Tuesday 4 July, 10.00-12.30 via MS Teams.
  • Creating an online self-guided library tour, if your library site does not already have one. We can provide guidance and support on the best format for your library to be ready for the start of session, from a quick guide to a video or interactive tour.
  • Offering activities at your library site to mirror those being delivered centrally, such as activities for international students or sessions to help students navigate Explore and online library resources.

Get in touch if you’d like to find out more.

How can you get involved?

To staff our exciting induction events, we’ll be seeking members for our Induction Taskforce. This is a great opportunity for anyone across LCCOS to get involved in meeting and greeting new students, and to develop your experience and skills. More information to follow in future ‘Induction insights 2023’.

Watch this space for more exciting updates on library induction.

Graduating Slade student sites degree show in UCL Libraries: Index by Adam Lazarus

By L ( Elizabeth ) Lawes, on 22 May 2023

The current Slade BA / BFA Fine Art degree shows include a work by graduating student Adam Lazarus in the form of a multi-location installation, sited across the Slade studios and various UCL Libraries.

The first part of the work is a library shelf mark screen printed on a studio wall in the Slade building*, indicating the precise location of a permanent installation in the Main Library in the form of an artists’ book which has been catalogued and processed as an ordinary addition to the collections. The publication itself indexes the titles and shelf marks of 84 books in various collections into which Adam has placed small ink drawings – place markers that evoke his interaction with the books during his time at UCL. For the duration of the degree show, visitors can access the Main Library and engage with the artwork within the space; they can choose to follow the trail to any number of the small drawings placed in the indexed titles. Library members will be able to interact with the work on an ongoing basis.

Adam says of Index: ‘The work pays homage to the library as a generative site, a sort of second studio for me, and thus bridges our histories before I depart from UCL. It encourages the nourishing searching and browsing which occurs in library spaces, a process which is becoming increasingly obsolete. The chosen volumes were compiled organically after I came across a list kept by the Library database of nearly every physical book which I checked out during my time here (omitting Covid,) a log of physical and metaphysical travels through the library.’

More by Adam Lazarus:

Adam Lazarus, degree showcase

Purgatories and Potentials: Mike Nelson’s An Invocation: 530 Books from Southend Central Library (dissertation)

* A duplicate screen print of the text “- -Index / Adam Lazarus, UCL Main Library Art Quartos MU 19 LAZ” can be found in the Main Library between ART KF 19 / KI 19 and ART KI 19 / KN 15.

Facilities & Projects Team Blog – Student Centre Fixed Wire Testing

By Collette E M Lawrence, on 19 May 2023

Student Centre Fixed Wire testing in June 2023

Some of you may already be aware, as this has taken place on some of our LCCOS sites already, we are currently working with Estates colleagues to carry out essential fixed wire testing across the UCL community. These tests are to ensure that all distribution boards, data facilities, electric circuits, power, and lighting are working correctly and meet legal requirements.

As part of the ongoing Estates fixed wire testing, the program has now reached the Student Centre.

From Thursday 1st – Friday 9th June 2023, the Student Centre will be having testing taking place, for health and safety reasons, and to try and minimise disruption to staff and students, due to sporadic loss of power and lighting please be aware of this if you are working in the areas of testing on the specific days.

In an attempt to try and minimise disruption for staff and students the F&P team have been working hard to plan these essential works with Estates and the contractors, HMC Compliance Limited. And have split the testing into floors and sections, as best we could.

We apologies for any inconvenience caused by these works and we appreciate your continued support and patience.

Contact us

If you have any issues or queries regarding this, please contact the LCCOS Facilities & Projects Team. Our team information can be found at the following link Facilities & Project Team.

UCL East: Marshgate handover

By Benjamin Meunier, on 22 March 2023

After a rather wet start to the day, the skies brightened up over the Olympic Park last Friday afternoon, just in time for the handover ceremony where building contractors Mace handed over the keys to UCL East’s latest addition – Marshgate.

View of Marshgate building. The edge of the London Stadium is visible in the right-hand corner, dwarfed by the cube-shaped Marshgate.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the occasion, which was described officially in the UCL News, where the significance of the milestone is described. I am taking this opportunity to share my reflections on the building and amateurish photos of the library and learning spaces…

Firstly, it is monumental – as described in the press release – “the biggest structure on any of UCL’s campuses, measuring six times the size of the UCL Student Centre”. It is very much a statement, right next to the London Stadium, placing UCL at the heart of East Bank – the cultural district that is intended as the 2012 Olympics’ legacy.

But size isn’t everything, of course. I was wowed by the grandeur of the atrium space, which even unfurnished and empty of students and staff, had a warmth and sense of conviviality you would not expect from an exposed concrete building. The main foyer will host public art exhibitions, to welcome and provoke visitors to the campus.

View up into the atrium, looking towards glazed roof

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